D'Alessandro: Amar'e Stoudemire's injury a moot point for Knicks

New York Daily News Photo/Howard SimmonsAmar'e Stoudemire badly injured his hand after a Game 2 loss to the Miami Heat.

GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Amar’e Stoudemire says he expects to play in Game 4 Sunday, and he clings to this plan because “I’ve persevered through a lot of injuries, and work hard to recover from injuries.”

In a related story, the New England Journal of Medicine yesterday published a report about an extraordinary 6-10 man in New York City who is capable of growing three new layers of skin in just 48 hours.

This would actually be a neat trick, because the self-inflicted wound Stoudemire suffered in Miami Monday night was alternately described by unnamed sources as nauseating, horrifying, gushing, hanging off, and as red and unappealing as a cheeseless pizza, though we’re fairly sure that last description came from a guy who hadn’t eaten all day.

Anyway, Amar’e was back at practice Wednesday, addressing the media as his teammates prepped for Game 3 against Miami tonight. He did this while wearing a bandage no larger than a roll of paper towels and a gray T-shirt with blue letters that spelled out “Marked Man,” a clear sign that he was being stalked by a menacing band of fire extinguishers with tiny cartoon feet.

Because it was that extinguisher at AmericanAirlines Arena that was to blame.

“I just walked by, and I hit the fire extinguisher — the door is 85 percent metal and another two percent glass or whatever, a little strip of glass,” the Knicks forward explained. “I didn’t try to hit the glass at all. I just walked by and swung my hand at the wall, hit the fire extinguisher and cut my hand.”

You heard him: No fist, no punch. Just a swipe at something that would make a loud and satisfying noise, he said, and the evidence would seem to support that point, as the laceration is clearly on the outside of his left palm. He didn’t even notice the cut until Josh Harrellson, observant rookie, informed him that he was leaking all over the locker room carpet.

You heard him: No harm, no foul. It was all a bloody misunderstanding.

“Fans think I had a closed fist and punched through a glass door,” Stoudemire said. “I understand their frustration, and I’m frustrated with myself as well for not being available for Game 3. Again, I’m not trying to make light of the situation, but it happens all the time — some players kick over ice coolers, some players tip over a table, some hit a chair. My thing was to hit the wall.”

Okay, we believe him. Or want to, anyway.

Either way, it’s moot.

And unfortunately, Amar’e might be as well.

Only one of two things can happen in the next four days, and neither outcome is likely to restore his dwindling prestige.

The Knicks could play very well — perhaps even win one of the two — and the only conclusion we’ll all reach, perhaps justifiably, is that he is just an extraneous part on a team that is built entirely around Carmelo Anthony’s jump shot.

This, for perhaps the 100th time, is not a good thing. Especially for Stoudemire.

Or the Knicks could get blasted out of the postseason in routine fashion, with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade running around the Garden like they own the joint.

This, too, would be a very bad thing for Stoudemire, because he would get blamed for not being around to stop the carnage.

Wait, we just thought of a third possibility: Everyone has already made up their mind.

Yes, that one works best for us.

That’s not to say we learned much from the Asterisk Season, but it is hard to overlook the fact that the Knicks were 14-5 without Stoudemire this season, including 9-4 when he had the bulging disc.

Indeed, his absence dominates what should be the real issue: This is the most incompatible pairing of stars since Jeff Van Gundy called his ’98-99 team “structurally flawed,” after his offense turned into a my-turn-your-turn tango for Allan Houston and Latrell Sprewell.

Stoudemire’s self-imposed exile postpones what should be considered inevitable. Now, owner Jim Dolan may need another year or two — with a healthy Jeremy Lin and Iman Shumpert to add background color to Melo’s canvas — before arriving at the obvious conclusion that this star pairing will not work.

The shame of it is that the timing never seems right around here to debate it. Wednesday, for example, could have been a happy day around Camp Dolan. Tyson Chandler, the true MVP of this team, won the Defensive Player of the Year award. Lin played three-on-three fullcourt games and moved with surprising confidence, if also about 10 layers of rust.

And, in what is always a treat, they were all beaming from the knowledge that they get to play a home game tonight. As usual, paramedics will be standing by.